June 2012: Univille, South Dakota, Leena's B&B/The Warehouse

[damncompass]

Looking back, Joshua realizes as he pulls into the B&B, he should have realized that he could have just gone through the bar for this move instead of travelling for the better part of a day. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and he's finally here now.

He leaves pretty much everything in the car, locks it (force of habit) and goes upstairs. Faced with a hallway of doors, he prays to whomever is listening that he remembers which door leads to which room. He doesn't really like the thought of waking up next to Pete, or worse, his sister.

Counting down the hall, he opens a door, and to his vast relief, walks into Helena's room.

Comments

[timelessinventor]

"It's all right. Claudia had assumed it was something like that." And Helena tried to believe her, she really did, but... well.

[damncompass]

"Hey." Joshua pets her hair. "Nothing's going to happen to me. I'm fine. Well, other than what's probably going to be one hell of a black eye in the morning..." Erg.

[timelessinventor]

"Well, I know how that got there, darling." Helena yawns. "Dare say we should both sleep." Goodness knows she's been running on a deficit all week.

[damncompass]

"Yeah. I've been travelling all fucking day." He lies back down and snuggles up next to her. "As long as you'll refrain from punching me in the face again."

[timelessinventor]

"Now that you're here, you won't have to worry about that." Honestly, it's half that she's not used to sharing a bed with someone in the first place.

And so they sleep.

[damncompass]

"certainly hope so." He smiles, and falls asleep in fairly short order.

[claudiometer]

Several hours later...
Knock knock.

Actually, more like knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock she can do this all day, guys.

[damncompass]

"mmmmmf?" Joshua blinks. "wha'zzat?"

[claudiometer]

"Lunchtime. It's nearly noon, I'm allowed to be obnoxious now."
She did poke her head in earlier, just to see if Joshua had made it back, but they were both so thoroughly zonked out she didn't bother waking them up.

[damncompass]

"Crap. We'll be down in a bit, thanks." Joshua sits up a bit and gently shakes Helena. "Helena? It's almost lunchtime."

[timelessinventor]

"Is it? Bugger." Not that Helena sounds (or is) all that upset; she rather needed the sleep. "I suppose we'd best go and join the civilised world, then. No doubt Claudia will want to give you your present."

[damncompass]

"Yeah, probably." Joshua sighs, wrinkling his face, and winces. "Ugh. My face hurts." He's got a pretty decent-sized shiner on his right eye.

[timelessinventor]

"You'll likely want an ice pack for that." She did nail him pretty hard, didn't she? Oops.

[damncompass]

"Hopefully Leena's got one downstairs." Joshua gets out of bed, stretches and rummages on the floor. After he finds his bag, he pulls out a clean shirt and pants and dresses. He'll shower later.

[timelessinventor]

"I'm sure she does, darling." Helena fishes some clean clothes out of her closet and gets dressed herself. "We take enough beatings on this job that they're prudent to keep about."

[damncompass]

By the time she's done, Joshua is running a hand through his (extremely awful by this point) bedhead, trying to make himself look at least somewhat presentable.

[timelessinventor]

"No one's going to fault you if your hair's a bit of a mess, you realise." He probably does, but Helena feels obliged to point it out. "Shall we?"

[damncompass]

"We shall." Joshua shuffles downstairs to find everyone already sitting down to lunch. Claud's joking with Pete over something, possibly having to do with the comic book on the table in front of them, and Artie is leaning back reading the news.

"Er, hey, everyone."

[claudiometer]

"Hey - the hell happened to your face?"

[damncompass]

"Um. I probably shouldn't have tried to get into bed without her realizing." He does have a sheepish face.

"I'll get you an ice pack, Joshua." Before he can even ask, Leena gets up and goes to the kitchen returning with a medical-grade ice pack. "That should at least help some."

[claudiometer]

"No, sneaking into bed with someone who knows kung-fu is never a good idea," Pete says. (Artie just grumbles something, but doesn't really comment.

After that, lunch goes pretty unremarkably, but by the end Claudia's almost vibrating in her seat.
"Okay, given your eye you're probably not gonna be able to drive, but it's time for your graduation/housewarming present now."

[timelessinventor]

And there's a smirk from his girlfriend. "I can certainly drive him."

[damncompass]

"I have a present?" Joshua eyes his little sister, then sighs and digs the rental car's keys out of his pocket. "Oh, alright. I guess I'll have to let my Victorian girlfriend drive."

[claudiometer]

"It's her or me, dude. At least I'm not sticking you with Artie - he's a nightmare behind the wheel."
So either his Victorian girlfriend drives him or his little sister does.
"Of course you have a present. You graduated. And you're home now."

[damncompass]

"Pete, are you..."

"No chance, dude, I'm going to Featherhead. Comic book run."

"There's a comic book shop in Featherhead? Shit, man. I guess western South Dakota's getting with the times. Alright, alright." Joshua sighs. "I think I'd rather be driven by Helena."